Round straw bale columns
Round straw bale columns Many people use small, square straw bales to make buildings, but we used the big round bales as load-bearing columns in a building! The big rounds are incredibly dense and uniform, and we lab tested them to 120,000 pounds of load! They are...
Repairing Clay Plaster (with toilet paper?…)
Questions concerning the durability of clay plaster – especially as an exterior plaster, and even more especially in cold and wet northern climates – get raised any time we suggest using clay plaster to a client. We recently had the experience of returning...
Finishing the straw-cell wall system
Our office building project for the Trillium Lakelands Teachers’ Union features a straw bale wall system that combines conventional wood stud framing with an interior straw bale wall. Recently, we finished the exterior side of this wall system. This involved...
High-straw earthen plaster recipe
It’s no secret that we love clay plasters at Endeavour, and the best case scenario is being able to use a clay soil right from the building site. It just so happens that we lucked into this for the teachers’ union office project! After digging some test...